“You gotta love a good genre-bending record. Morphing between two, three, or even more distinct metallic styles is not easy, but it’s even more difficult to attempt while still putting out a great record. Boston, Massachusetts progressive symphonic metal act Ice Giant aim to join these ranks of successful shape-shifters with their sophomore LP, Ghost of Humanity.” Kitchensinkcore.
“There’s something special about a melodic death metal band unafraid to reach into the depths of brutality in the pursuit of killer tunes. Bands like Nawabs of Destruction and The Beast of Nod created some of my favorite metal albums of recent years by utilizing an equal measure of brutal and hyper-melodic elements. Now it looks like Astralborne, a melodic death metal trio hailing from Ohio, prepare themselves to officially join that exclusive category with their upcoming opus Across the Aeons.” Resistance is brutal.
“Like so many other extreme metal acts, Exocrine crave evolution in their skills and sound. That being the case, it should come at no surprise that The Hybrid Suns abandons many of the stylistic choices that defined Maelstrom and Molten Giant while still respecting those albums’ imprint on the band’s career. Exocrine’s compositions retain a similar sense of grandeur despite the stripped down instrumentation. The Hybrid Suns is also a heavier and noticeably more br00tal record.”Evolution of the wicked.
TheKenWord and Carcharodon assembled these Top Ten(ish) lists and apparently they stand by them. You can judge if that is the right decision.
“The Beast of Nod’s Vampira: Disciple of Chaos was one of the coolest indie death metal albums back in 2018. The icy hunk of sharp, odd prog-death featured unique songwriting, delightfully insane humor, an entertaining story with fascinating characters, and a thousand hooks sharpened with intent to kill. Wild seems an apt descriptor, especially when you take into account the extensive lore that the project created to accompany their musical arm. While rough around the edges at times, that first icebreaker put The Beast of Nod on my map, and the maps of several more of our writers.” Nod plod.
“Every year it seems that in the midst of all the doom, sludge and black metal clogging up my arteries, I find that one album of fast, technical, brutal sci-fi themed metal that I can’t stop listening to. Recent output by Xoth, Æpoch, Beast of Nod and the mighty Archspire have flayed my face meat and chilled my soul with surgical guitars and the unknowable horrors of the cosmos. In 2018 I discovered Swiss band Stortregn through their fantastic third full-length Emptiness Fills the Void. Despite its title, the album absolutely burst at the seams with blackened, thrashy tech death glory that never sacrificed melody for brutality. The cold, dark vacuum of space sounded thrilling in their capable hands. Three years later, Stortregn has moved from the diverse roster of Non Serviam Records to tech death specialists The Artisan Era for their fourth LP Impermanence.” In space no one can hear you fanboy.
![The Ridiculous Year o’ Death Metal Round-up, Part 1 [Things You Might Have Missed 2018]](https://www.angrymetalguy.com/wp-content/uploads/2018/12/dmwm-roundup1-768x403.png)
“A lot of good death metal came out this year. In the last six months, it has become an outright deluge, and Ferrous Beuller and I have doggy-paddled through it, coughing and sputtering and generally being overwhelmed. But even if great albums were few, enough good albums came out—and got passed over—that we’re in dire need of a recap. In fact the need is so dire that we can’t hope to cover it all ourselves.”
